BOSTON – Some advocates are pushing for a new mental health law in Massachusetts that they say could prevent countless tragedies.
The mother of one 22-year-old from Cape Cod told the WBZ I-Team how he spiraled in a mental breakdown and assaulted his own father. “He had him in a headlock and he was punching him several times… He started biting, and the biting was accompanied with growling and animal sounds… meanwhile trying to bash his father’s head into the pavement… He was going to try and kill his father.”
She feels the incident could have been avoided if he had been taking prescribed medications and following through with a treatment plan. But she says like so many other patients with mental illness, her son does not think he needs help. “Why would he ask for services,” she said. “Why would he take medicine if he thinks he’s fine?”
The list of recent Massachusetts crimes in which investigators cite mental health is exhaustive. It includes Christopher Ferguson accused in a Newton triple murder, Duxbury mom Lindsay Clancy accused of killing her own children, and Aaron Pennington who disappeared after police say he killed his wife in Gardner.